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Forget the middle school haters who shamed you into believing you were tone-deaf. A new study reveals that singing is more like playing an instrument than previously thought: Singing accurately is a skill that can be taught and developed. And that means that even the worst singers among us should just keep singing.

Most people use it all day every day — we speak, we sing, we laugh — and yet many of us have no idea how our voices work.

It’s an amazing system that operates much like a wind instrument and is roughly divided into three parts: the power source (your lungs), the vibrator (your voice box) and the resonator (your throat, nose, mouth and sinuses).

In short, when we inhale, the diaphragm — the large muscle that runs across our abdomen — drops down and the lungs expand as the air travels in. When you go to speak, which happens courtesy of a signal from your brain...